esports
We speak to the drivers who will have qualified for the first ever F1 Esports Series final at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Most of the gamers competing at the F1 Escorts Series Semi-Finals won’t have experienced anything like it before. Take Alberto Foltan, for example. Just 16 years-old, he sits on a garden chair when he plays F1 2017 at home in Italy, but this week he was competing in front of a sell-out crowd at the Gfinity Arena, with nearly 300,000 people watching on Sky Sports.
It’s only going to get bigger from here as Alberto is one of 20 drivers who have qualified for the final, which will take place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 24-25. “It’s a dream for me and you can’t imagine my feeling,” said Alberto, who qualified in 15th position.
For these gamers, the F1 Esports Series is an amazing opportunity. They’re used to watching their heroes race on television, but now they’re actually going to be competing at a Grand Prix weekend. Having come through online qualifiers and the semi-finals to reach Abu Dhabi, they told us what they thought of the experience so far.
F1 Esports Series results
It's out of this world
“I think it’s awesome,” said 19 year-old Reading chef Brendon Leigh. He finished in first place and will be travelling abroad for the first time to race in Abu Dhabi.
“This is the first time a Formula 1 game has had a big event like this and it’s out of this world to be the first people to go to the finals. Even if I don’t win at the finals, to me that’s going to be special to be the first people to be in the event.
Leigh believes that this is just the beginning for F1 Esports. “I think it’s going to grow immensely, esports is growing already, so it’s just going to get better and better and as more people understand it, the bigger it’s going to get. I think a lot of people who tuned into Sky Sports would have been like, ‘what is this?’. "But after a while they would have understood it and thought, this is pretty much F1 on a game. I think it’s going to grow massively.”
The people in the crows have said it's been amazing to watch
Civil servant Harrison Jacks has some experience of competitive racing, having qualified for the final of McLaren’s World's Fastest Gamer competition. Even so, he was impressed by the setup at the Gfinity Arena.
“It’s been great,” he said. “Not only from my perspective as a driver, but also the people watching me in the crowd have said it’s been amazing to watch. The commentators have been really getting into it - they’ve been so used to real-life F1, but they've come to the virtual world and have been so excited about it. It's been absolutely perfect.”
It's going to be even better in Aubu Dhabi
As Turkish driver Cem Bölükbasi told us, it’s only going to get bigger. “It’s been great here for the past couple of days and I think it’s going to be even better in Abu Dhabi. It feels amazing to be going to the race and experiencing an actual F1 atmosphere at an F1 race track, with all the F1 fans watching us as well. I think it’s going to be an amazing event.”
Brendon Leigh is confident he’ll be able to replicate his success in London at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. “The flying Finn [Joni Törmälä] and Cem are both really quick. Everyone has to be to quick to get into the final, but those two are incredible racers. Hopefully they won’t challenge me too much. I don’t think I’ll pull the same gap [as in the semi] but I think I can win”
And if he does win the three-race event, not only will he automatically qualify for next year’s semi-finals, but he’ll get free tickets to an F1 2018 race, and perhaps most excitingly, he’ll be a character in the F1 2018 game.
